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Topic Review (Newest First)

04-04-2010 11:10 PM

ChevelleSS_LS6

I bought a shop-vac for about $60 a couple years ago, I don't use it 'hard'... just for cars, big stuff in the house (dog hair after brushing), and shop dust. Works great, and I swear I've seen Donaldson filters for them somewhere a couple years go. Not sure if they still make them though.

03-26-2010 02:42 PM

jaguarxk120

Well if I make the mess I'm the one that does the cleaning! So a little bit of planning go's a long way.

03-26-2010 10:23 AM

Irelands child

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaguarxk120

.........the dust is gypsum, I just flush the mud out into the grass. One must add enough water to make a solution then on to the lawn.

The big thing is the dust isn't all over the house!!

1. Not my lawn - tried it - made a mess

2. Agree about the dust and so would my wife, but.......it still isn't worth it for a small job to spend almost as much clean up time as sanding, and the house, it needs dusting weekly anyhow.

03-26-2010 10:10 AM

Old Fool

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaguarxk120

When doing a small job it's well worth the extra effort to drag out the hose's and hook up the dust collector. And as far as cleanup the dust is gypsum, I just flush the mud out into the grass. One must add enough water to make a solution then on to the lawn.

The big thing is the dust isn't all over the house!!

Using a screen vac sanding pad with the gortex filter I have no mess, and dont have to deal with the water thing. each his own, both ways work.

03-26-2010 08:02 AM

jaguarxk120

When doing a small job it's well worth the extra effort to drag out the hose's and hook up the dust collector. And as far as cleanup the dust is gypsum, I just flush the mud out into the grass. One must add enough water to make a solution then on to the lawn.

The big thing is the dust isn't all over the house!!

03-26-2010 06:19 AM

Old Fool

Quote:

Originally Posted by Irelands child

These work well - but the cleanup of those gadgets - still a mess. I use mine occasionally, but almost prefer the dust then the constant tripping over hoses and listening to my shop vac roar plus the whistle sound of the air volume adjuster.

OF - where did you get the Red Stripe filter(sounds like a Jamaican beer ) ?
Dave W

A number of Sears shop vacs use the red stripe filter. The red stripe indicates a size, not a material.
I purchased a GoreTex replacment filter of the red stripe size at Sears about 15 years ago. It was about double the cost of the pleated paper version.

I do not know if Sears carries them any more, Looking online I only see the standard red stripe , the blue fine dust ,and the red stripe HEPA paper filter.

When I was remodeling my house, I was looking at a Rigid "dust recovery machine" and a Rigid 6.5 hp vacuum, and thinking that the vacuum would be useful much longer than the other thing, but I wasn't sure the vac would do what I needed it to do, which was capture enough dust to do the job. I chose the vac, and I'm sure glad I did, I still use it several times a week 10 years later, and it works as good now as it did new,

03-25-2010 07:08 PM

Irelands child

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaguarxk120

If your doing drywall sanding then get the dustless system. The pad use's a sanding screen and is hooked to a water bath thats hooked to the shop vac. All dust is captured in the water bath and won't clogg you filter in the vac reducing suction. Well worth the cost.

These work well - but the cleanup of those gadgets - still a mess. I use mine occasionally, but almost prefer the dust then the constant tripping over hoses and listening to my shop vac roar plus the whistle sound of the air volume adjuster.

OF - where did you get the Red Stripe filter(sounds like a Jamaican beer ) ?
Dave W

03-25-2010 03:13 PM

jaguarxk120

If your doing drywall sanding then get the dustless system. The pad use's a sanding screen and is hooked to a water bath thats hooked to the shop vac. All dust is captured in the water bath and won't clogg you filter in the vac reducing suction. Well worth the cost.

03-25-2010 06:17 AM

Old Fool

I replaced the "red stripe" filter in my Sears shopvac with a GoreTex filter. Improved performane, filters many times better and is washable. Only filter I know of that will capture drywall sanding dust.

03-12-2010 05:27 PM

wildthing

yeah iam the parts jobber for my shop and i get them sears vacs . they work great never a problem and they get used hard.
i think you got an obstruction also , check the suction with no hose or attactments , then add a hose section and check it , then check the attactments. also as was said try putting the hose on the exhaust side and check air flow.

03-12-2010 02:17 PM

chevelle_502

Since youve cleaned your filter you have air flow comin in the hose to the filter and the container. Now check the air outlet. My vac has a filter for the air outlet (and a 265mph blower attachment) but wherever the air exhaust is check for clog because if it is the air will just swirl around in there and youll lose all that suction.

03-12-2010 01:48 PM

Irelands child

Last year about this time I posted that my 24 year old 16 gallon Sears vac was dying, even with a new filter and wanted suggestions for a new one. It wasn't dying!! I had about a 50% restriction of some sort of stringy crud in the hose. It seemed to suck pretty well - that is until I went to clean up under my table saw. I 'reamed' out the hose, cleaned up whatever else I could and it's good for another quarter century. The little one, also a Sears 5 gallon (I think), needed a new filter. Got one the same size at HD for about 60% of the Crapsman - works fine now.

Dave W

03-11-2010 06:22 PM

sparkydog

Sounds like something is FUBAR with your vac. I'll try to make a funny joke now: you are using the electric motor on it, right?

Your screen name makes me think you have an IH vehicle.

03-11-2010 01:11 PM

BinderDriver

I'm glad you guys are happy with your shopvacs.

My shopvac has a new filter as of yesterday. I tried to clean the old filter; I thought that might be a problem. Theoretically, according to Sears, the filter can be cleaned. But it didn't help. So I bought a new one.

I use the hose that came with it. I don't use any attachments that weren't made by Sears.

Let me explain what brought this to my notice. Here in North Texas we've been getting a lot of snow and rain. I don't know why, but one of my dogs gets more countryside on her than the other. So I have to give her a bath a couple of times a week. That leaves a lot of dirt in the tub. I thought an easy way to clean it up would be to use the shopvac. It won't pick it up the dirt. Even though if I lean close I can blow on it and move it. I can blow on it and move it with a puff of air, but the shopvac can't pick it up.

I would think that if I can blow on the dirt and move it, the shopvac ought to pick it up. But like I said, the only mark it makes if I use an attachment is the physical displacement of the dirt where the tool touches the surface. I can take the attachment off and just use the hose and scrub it along the surface and it will clean, but like I said, a damp rag is faster and easier.

Basically, since I bought it a couple of years ago I think I've used the shopvac the way 90% of people who buy them use them. Cleaning car interiors and carpets. As I said, if you scrub hard enough it seems to work. It's just that when I tried to vacuum loose dirt off of a hard, white plastic surface I noticed, "Hey, this thing doesn't seem to be working very well."

And it isn't. Before I never really thought about it.

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